The Moriarty Tapes
by junkerey
Summary: The Holmes parents are interviewed by British Secret Service and Mycroft plays the tape for Sherlock. Incomplete, just playing with an idea.


(START OF RECORDING)

(PORTION OF INTERVIEW #1)

Q: Tell me about how this happened.

A1: Well… it happened how everything happens. It just did. Oh, and it was such a messy affair at the time!

Q: What affair?

A1: THE affair, of course. The affair between my wife and… that man.

Q: That man, being…

A1: Her first husband.

Q: How many years ago was this?

A1: Ah, it's… been… thirty-eight or thirty-nine years, now. I think. Numbers never really were my strong point. I have difficulty with everything from birthdays to my checkbook. That's why she handles all the finances and travel arrangements and whatnot. If it were left up to me, we'd never get anything done.

Q: So when you said "affair" earlier in our conversation, you were talking about an actual affair. An intimate encounter.

A1: Well, clearly, it was. Otherwise we wouldn't be here, would we?

Q: No, we would not. Can you tell me about her first husband?

A1: I know very little, I'm afraid. Never inquired much. I'm not one for gossip or rumor, either. When we met, my wife and I, we met as two single people coming together to form a union. Picked up from the present, and never looked back.

Q: And she never enquired about your past?

A1: I didn't have much of one to speak of. Not even a girlfriend, I'm afraid. She was my first love and has been my only love to this day. Touch wood.

(PORTION OF INTERVIEW #2)

A2: One thing I have never done is to lie to my husband or my children. I'm simply incapable of it.

Q: And you've said that you consider that a fault?

A2: It is a fault. Most definitely. You see, lying serves a purpose. Perhaps it's not a wholly moral stance to take on the practice, but it is a necessary thing.

Q: In what cases?

A2: It depends. The result varies with the circumstances. In my case, had I lied, then those lies would have protected my family better. We might have all had a different outcome to the one we face now. Although I have to admit, one of the reasons that I don't lie is because I always knew that my husband would never leave me over the truth. I never shy away from being straightforward.

Q: Which is a trait you passed down to your children.

A2: Yes. Oh, but they are much more brutal about it, having been raised in a house of nothing but truths. It's worth pointing out that they do know how to lie and are perhaps much better at it as a result of their security in the truth. The power of the truth.

Q: Does your husband lie?

A2: Ah… on occasion. Little white lies, easily disprovable, but I don't bother to do insult him by pointing out the flaws.

Q: Why is that?

A2: Because when he says them, there's always a reason and in some way, he's trying to protect my feelings. And the fibs he tells are never worthwhile, really. I can see right through the man.

Q: Do you love your husband?

A2: Oh, very much. I love him more than I have ever loved another human being on this planet.

Q: Even your children?

A2: (PAUSE) It depends on which ones we're talking about, now, doesn't it?

(PORTION OF INTERVIEW #1)

Q: When did you first learn about the pregnancy?

A1: Oh. Well. Now that's getting right down to the issue, isn't it?

Q: There's no sense in wasting time.

A1: No, no, I suppose not. At my age, I shouldn't be so hesitant about much of anything, and yet there's that out-of-date impulse not to be… inappropriate, I suppose. That was quite an uncomfortable eight months. He was premature, you know.

Q: First, tell me about the affair between your wife and her first husband.

A1: There's really not much to tell. She almost never mentioned it, and after the birth, we simply lay all that aside. (PAUSE) The affair happened when she went away for a conference one weekend-higher mathematics, advances or some such nonsense. She said that she wanted to meet up with a few old friends, not so much to learn the latest trend in… whatever it is they do. She gave up that kind of life entirely upon marrying me, you know.

Q: No, I did not, sir.

A1: Ah. Well, she didn't want to put me off. As I like to say, I'm something of a moron. My wife, although average by all appearances, is actually a genius. And so it seemed sensible to her that she should not engage in a world which I could not be a part of as well. She did so by her own choice, I might add. Not mine. I never so much as voiced an opinion. It's what she said she wanted.

Q: There was no discussion about it?

A1: We never argue. I can't stand a raised voice in the house. But I'd always known that it was unreasonable to expect her to absolutely drop everything associated with academia, so I had no objections to her taking one minor weekend visit.

Q: To Ireland?

A1: Yes.

(PORTION OF INTERVIEW #2)

A2: There was always a raw, sexual attraction between myself and my first husband. We did anything and everything that came to mind, and sometimes even surprised ourselves-

Sherlock slammed his hand down on the laptop and stopped the recording, and the thin green line that followed the voice patterns in blue across the playback froze in place.

"Oh, for _God's _sake!" he exclaimed.

Mycroft smirked. "Ah, mother dear. Always so straightforward." He leaned back in his chair and his grin widened. "It's not a conversation to be alarmed about. After all, how do you think we got here?"

"Well, I'm not exactly comfortable hearing her talk about it," he grumbled.

"You're not exactly comfortable with _any_ of it. Sex, I mean. Although I do admit, her talking does tend to get on one's nerves after a while."

Sherlock gave his head a slight tilt in acknowledgement. "Sex is fine. After all, think of my failed engagement to Janine. Or haven't you read the tabloids?"

"'Seven times a night in Baker Street.' I remember glancing at the headlines on the way into work." He winked. "Slowing down a bit as you get older?"

His eyebrows drew down. "And who are you to talk of sex, anyway? When was the last time you indulged yourself? Outside of that incident at university."

Mycroft gave Sherlock a cool look. "We are not here to discuss the indiscretions of my youth, nor my admittedly infrequent adult habits within the bedroom. This meeting is about you understanding that-"

"I don't need to listen to this," Sherlock interrupted. He slumped in his chair and glared at Mycroft. "I know what he is. Who he is. Why should I hear our parents explain it?"

Mycroft's smile dropped off his face and he likewise glared back at Sherlock. "Because it's important for you to understand it from their perspective. They feel no attachment to him, Sherlock. Nor should you."

"I don't."

Mycroft stood up, adjusted his jacket and stepped to the window to look outside, turning his back to Sherlock as he did so. "I can't risk the chance that you might. Turn the recording back on, little brother. There's more to be learned."

Sherlock fixed him with a steely gaze. "His genetic connection means nothing."

"No." That peculiar Mycroft grin spread across his face again. "Yet I question your level of detachment, just the same."

"Clearly, yours is intact."

The biting comment evoked no change in Mycroft's expression. "As always. Even where you are concerned, it has to be."

A slight chuckle escaped Sherlock, and his eyebrows went up. "Indeed? Your expression in the helicopter on Magnusson's estate said otherwise. I saw a level of sympathy on your face that I haven't seen since Redbeard."

Only then did the smile disappear again. "Finish the tape, brother."


End file.
